Llama Hunting

I don’t know if I can reiterate how well the school has treated us any more than I have already. Today, after our orientation stuff, we were split into two groups and given the choice to take a tour of Parque Metropolitano, or an art museum tour. Shannon and I went with the park group.

First thing is first. This park is massive. Depending on who you believe, it’s 1.8, 2.5, or 3 times bigger than Central Park in New York City. No matter the comparison, it is the biggest park in South America and is right by our school and our apartment.

We started our hike by walking on a few trails and checking out some of the beautiful views of some of the surrounding city, mountains, and volcanoes. It was really nice. The weather was great *shocker*, and some of the teachers brought their dogs, which made me want Howie here a little more.

As we got to about the halfway point in our walk, we found a Llama pen? The question mark is due to the fact that I’m not sure what to call it but there were about a dozen llamas hanging out in a pen type area. We all took some pictures and watched them for a minute until a llama herder (?) walked over, opened the gate, blew a whistle, and all of the llamas walked down the road away from us.

We kept walking a little bit longer and came across some beautiful art, various sculptures, a few wild horses and a couple of very upset cows who were making a big fuss about us being there. (I had to resist making a mad cow disease joke here with every bit of restraint I have)

When we got to the end of the hike we all ended up going to the home of our school’s director. She hosted us for a cocktail hour that was catered by the school’s food staff and was complete with wine, whiskey, beer, soda, food and the works. It was great! Llamas, sculptures, cows, dogs, and volcanoes…just another day in Quito.